On New Year’s Eve, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, published a report showing that the Republican claim that 5 million people have had their health insurance policies canceled
due to the ACA is flat out false. While many have probably thought that
these claims were dubious at best and most likely dishonest and
exaggerated, this report is the first instance of Republicans being
taken to task for continuously pushing this false narrative.
Recently, the Obama Administration has pushed back on these numbers,
stating that far fewer people have actually received cancellation
notices and that those who have will be able to receive similar or
better coverage through the marketplaces or even find themselves
eligible for Medicaid. However, even having said this, Republican
lawmakers still kept touting the 5 million number without any real
proof.
Finally, the Democrats are able to point to an accredited report that
proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that 5 million people are not the
victims of the evilness of Obamacare and will be prevented from having
insurance now. The report takes the claims of the GOP at face value,
using the assumption that 4.7 million people have received cancellation
notices from their insurers. Among that number, the report shows that
half of those people can immediately renew their plans due to fixes that
the administration put forth over the past weeks and months.
Now, of those remaining that received cancellation notices (remember,
again, this is a made-up number from the Republicans), 1.4 million
would be able to receive subsidies on the individual marketplaces or
would be eligible for Medicaid, therefore receiving free or greatly
discounted health insurance. Now, that still leaves a little less than
one million consumers. Of those 900,000+, all but 10,000 of them would
be able to purchase another plan on the health exchanges.
In other words, this Republican talking point is complete and utter
BS. With this report, the Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee
proved that there is no widespread epidemic of policy cancellations due
to the ACA. And, even if we take the Republicans’ statements as
completely true, in the end, only 0.2% of those who received
cancellation notices would fall through the cracks and be unable to
purchase a new policy. Per the report, the only reason that is the case
is because those people live in rural counties (mostly in Red states)
where there are no other insurance carriers.
Is this going to stop conservative pundits and Republicans
Congressmen from saying that 5 million people have been thrown off of
their insurance due to Obamacare? Probably not. But, at least Democrats
can point to a fully researched report and tell them they are full of
crap. Much like everything else the GOP has said regarding the ACA, when
you hold it up to scrutiny, it falls completely apart.

Rep. Waxman Catches Republicans in Another ACA Lie and Delivers Truth Bomb With Report was written by Justin Baragona for PoliticusUSA.